[mythtv-users] Is there a tuner limit? (problem with >8 tuners)

[Chris Wilkie - NetrinoUK]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Lachlan McIntosh
> Sent: 21 August 2007 13:52
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Is there a tuner limit? (problem with >8
tuners)

>>It's horribly noisey.  Lucky it's going into a data centre eventually
- 
>>I can't wait to get rid of it!

> Your data centre has TV/Cable access? 

> Where is this mythical place?

We're in a facility in West London.  No cable access unfortunately,
although it's in a Virgin Media area (according to their website) so I
dare say it could be run in if required.

What we have is space rented on the roof, in an area where there would
normally be microwave dishes and the like, and have a terrestrial aerial
(for both analog and digital) and a 60cm dish pointed at Astra 28E (Sky
Digital), although there is room for one, maybe two more at a squeeze.
Dish is fitted with quad LNB of course, and it's all fed into combined
UHF DA's and sat switches so we can provide a single coax cable with
terrestrial and satellite available on it.  We've even got a TV licence
to be on the safe side as it's a bit vague (according to our solicitor)
whether we need one if shows aren't actually being viewed at the site.

Various companies are using the service, the biggest of which offers TV
services for UK residents who have properties (aka holiday homes)
abroad.  He recodes the mpeg2 streams into mpeg4 and streams them out to
a IP enabled STB at various different data rates.  We've also got a
couple of guys in there who were desperate for Sky TV and aren't allowed
a dish for some reason.  They both colocate Sky boxes (one is actually
Sky+ IIRC), servers running VideoLAN, and some sort of dongle in the RF
port that emulates the remote control.  I did try this out one time with
XBMC (x-box media centre) as the client and it worked very well,
although I'm not sure how they implement control of the STB to change
channels etc.  I believe they had some success using the T.38
fax-over-voip protocol to get interactive stuff working, although I've
not spoken to either of them for a while.  I really should do some
reading into getting Sky working with Myth using DVB-S cards (my sour
memories of TiVo are preventing me from going for the analog card + IR
blaster approach), as it might finally persuade me to ditch my ageing
Sky+ box.

Anyway, back on subject, I believe we are the only (UK based) company
that can offer this service, but I may be wrong.  I did consider
offering a hosted Mythbox type service, but to be honest, I've not had
the time to look into it.  I do know that it's possible to stream BBC1
in native mpeg (ie straight off-air) which, if I remember correctly from
my days at the BBC, is 5MBit CBR, and receive it on my 24MBit ADSL at
home with no problems, so I'm sure it's technically possible.  I just
really don't know enough about the inner workings of Myth to get it all
set up.

Cheers, Chris